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Sciences 
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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  1  ^S80 

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1 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

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CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
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Couverture  restaur^e  et/ou  peiliculde 

□    Cover  title  missing/ 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 


I      I    Coloured  maps/ 


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Cartes  giographiques  en  couleur 


Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  da  couleur  li.e.  autre  que  bieue  ou  noire) 


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II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajouties 
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I — "7   Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 


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film 


Orif 
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first 
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ages  detached/ 
Pages  d^tachees 

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obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiquA  ci-dessous. 


lOX 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

SOX 

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20X 


24X 


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32X 


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Th«  copy  fllmad  h«r«  haa  b««n  raproducad  thknlia 
to  tha  ganaroaity  of : 

Library  Division 

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Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
poaaibia  consldaring  tha  condition  and  laglhillty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  In  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  apacif Icationa. 


L'axamplaira  fllmA  f ut  raprodult  grica  i  la 
g4n4roait*  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archivas  of  British  Columbia 

Laa  Imagaa  aulvantaa  ont  Ati  raprodultaa  avac  la 
plua  grand  aoln,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
d9  la  nattat*  da  l'axamplaira  filmA,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  conditlona  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  copiaa  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  fllmad 
baglnning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  Impraa- 
alon,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  fllmad  baglnning  on  tha 
f  Irat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  impraa- 
aion,  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  impraaaion. 


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ahall  contain  tha  aymboi  — »>  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  aymboi  y  (moaning  "END"), 
whichavar  appliaa. 


Laa  axamplairaa  orlginaux  dont  la  couvartura  •n 
papiar  aat  ImprimAa  aont  filmAa  un  commandant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  aoit  par  la 
darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration.  aolt  par  la  aacond 
plat,  aalon  la  caa.  Toua  laa  autraa  axamplairaa 
orlginaux  aont  f  llmte  ^n  comman9ant  par  la 
pramlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'impraaaion  ou  d'illuatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

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darnlAra  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  aalon  la 
caa:  la  aymbola  -^  aignlfia  "A  SUIVRE",  la 
aymboia  V  aignlfia  "FIN". 


Mapa.  plataa.  charta.  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratioa.  Thoaa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filmad 
baglnning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  framaa  aa 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrama  illuatrata  tha 
mathod: 


Laa  cartaa,  pianchaa,  tablaaux,  ate,  pauvant  Atra 
filmia  A  daa  taux  da  reduction  diff*ranta. 
Loraqua  la  documant  aat  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
raproduit  an  un  aaul  ciichA,  il  aat  filmA  &  partir 
da  I'angla  aupAriaur  gaucha,  da  gaucha  a  droita. 
at  da  haut  an  baa,  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  nicaaaaira.  Laa  diagrammaa  auivanta 
illuatrant  la  mithoda. 


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V.--- 


19th  CONGRESS,         [DoC.  No.  65.] 

1st  Session. 


HO.  OF  REPS. 
Executive. 


BOUNDARY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN. 


mi^^^iK^H 


FROM   THE 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


TRANSMITTING 


The  Correspondence  with  the  British   Government, 


IN   RELATION   TO   THE 


3SounTiairj;»  of  tije  mniurt  ^tuuu 


ON   THE 


PACIFIC  OCEAN. 


January  31,  1826. 


IJead,  and  rommitted  to  the  Committee  of  tlie  Whole  House,  to  which  i.s  committed 
the  nil!  to  authorize  the  establishment  of  a  Military  Post,  or  Hosts,  on  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  to  provide  for  the  exploration  of  its  coasts  and  waters. 


washingtox: 


I'HINTKD  Kr  GALKS  of  SEATOf . 


182fi. 


j>- 


T 


of 
w 

tl 


l\ 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States. 

Washington,  Slst  January f  1826. 

In  compliance  with  a  Resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 

of  the  18th  instant,  I  transmit  a  Report  from  the  Secretary  of  State, 

with  the  Correspondence  with  the  British  Grovernraent,  relating  to 

the  Boundary  of  the  United  States  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  desired  by 

the  Resolution. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS. 


I\: 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


Department  of  State, 

Washington,  30th  January,  1 826. 

The  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  was  referred  the  Resolution  of 
the  House  of  Represeutatives,  of  the  1 8th  of  January,  1 826,  requesting 
the  President  to  roiriinuuicate  to  tiiat  House  all  tlie  correspondence 
between  the  Government  of  the  United  States  aud  the  Governmeni 
of  Great  Britain,  respecting  the  Boundary  of  that  part  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  which  is  situated  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  which  has  not  already  been  communicated,  or  so  much  t!iPi*eof  as 
niiiv  be  compatible  with  the  public  interest  to  disclose,  has  tlie  lionor 
to  leport  to  the  President,  as  coming  within  the  purview  of  the  Reso- 
lution, copies  of 

1.  A  Letter  from  Mr.  Adams,  late  Secretary  of  State,  to  Mr. 
Rush,  under  date  the  22d  day  of  July.  1823. 

2.  An  extract  from  a  des(>atch  of  Mr.  Rush  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  under  date  the  12th  day  of  August,  1823. 

S.  Copy  of  the  Protocol  of  the  llth  Conference  of  the  American 
and  British  Plenipotentiaries,  held  at  the  Board  of  Trade,  (in 
London.)  on  the  1st  April.  1824. 

4.  Copy  of  the  Protocol  of  the  12th  Conference. 

5.  Copy  of  the  Protocol  of  the  20th     ditto. 

6.  Extract  from  the  Protocol  of  the  23d. 

7.  Copy  of  Paper  marked  F.  American  Pajier,  on  the  North- 
west Coast  of  America. 

S'  Copy  of  Paper  marked  P.  British  Paper,  on  the  Northwest 
Coast  of  America. 

Resi)cctfully  submitted, 

H.  ILAY. 


[Doc.  No.  66.] 


! 


I 


S'(? 


Mr,  Mams  to  Mr,  Rush, 

Department  of  State, 

JVashingteUy  July  2Qd,  1823. 

Sib  :  Among  the  subjects  of  negotiation  with  Great  Britain  which 
are  pressing  upon  the  attention  of  this  Government,  is  the  present 
condition  of  the  Northwest  coast  of  this  continent  This  interest  is 
connected,  in  a  manner  becoming,  from  day  to  day,  more  important, 
with  our  territorial  rights;  with  the  whole  system  of  our  intercourse 
with  the  Indian  tribes;  with  the  boundary  I'elations  between  us  and 
the  British  North  American  dominions;  with  the  fur  trade;  the  fishe- 
ries in  the  Pacific  Ocean;  the  commerce  with  the  Sandwich  Islands 
and  China;  with  our  boundary  upon  Mexico;  and,  lastly,  with  our 
political  standing  and  intercourse  with  tlie  Russian  Empire. 

By  the  third  article  of  the  Convention  between  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain,  of  2Uth  October,  1818,  it  is  agreed,  that,  <<any 
*«  country  that  may  be  claimed  by  either  party,  on  the  Northwest 
"  coast  of  America,  Westward  of  the  Stoney  Mountains,  shall,  to- 
<<  gether  with  its  iiarbors,  bays,  and  creeks,  and  the  navigation  of  all 
«  rivers  within  the  same,  be  free  and  open  for  the  term  of  ten  yeai's, 
<*  from  the  date  of  the  signature  of  the  Convention,  to  tlie  vessels, 
«  citizens,  and  subjects,  of  the  two  Powers:  it  being  well  understood, 
**  that  this  agreement  is  not  to  be  construed  to  the  prejudice  of  any 
**  claim  which  either  of  the  two  high  contracting  parties  may  have  to 
"  any  part  of  the  said  country;  nor  shall  it  be  taken  to  affect  the 
**  claims  of  any  othei*  Power  or  State,  to  any  part  of  the  said  coun- 
*<  try;  the  only  object  of  the  high  contracting  parties,  in  that  respect, 
*<  being,  to  prevent  disputes  and  differences  amongst  themselves.** 

On  the  6th  of  October,  1818,  fourteen  days  before  the  signature  of 
this  Convention,  the  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  Columbia  Iliver  had 
been  formally  restored  to  the  United  States,  by  order  of  tlie  British 
Government.  (Message  P.  U.  S.  to  H.  R.  I5th  April,  1822,  p.  13. 
Letter  of  Mr.  Prevost  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  of  1 1  th  Nov.  1 8 1 8.) 

By  the  Treaty  of  amity,  settlement,  and  limits,  between  tlie  United 
States  and  Spain,  of  22d  February,  1819,  the  boundary  line  between 
them  was  fixed  at  the  42°  of  lat  fi-om  the  source  of  the  Arkansas  ri- 
ver  to  the  South  Sea.  By  which  Treaty,  tlie  United  States  acquired 
all  the  rights  of  Spain  North  of  that  parallel. 

Tlie  right  of  the  United  States  to  the  Columbia  River,  and  to  the 
interior  territory  washed  by  its  waters,  rests  upon  its  discovery  fi-om 
tho  sea,  and  nomination,  by  a  citizen  of  the  United  States;  upon  its 
exploration  to  the  sea  by  Captains  Lewis  and  Clarke;  ujjon  the  set- 
tlement of  Astoria,  maile  under  the  pi-otection  of  the  United  States, 
and  thus  restored  to  them  in  1818;  and  upon  the  subsequent  acquisi- 
tion of  all  the  rights  of  Spain,  the  only  European  Power  who,  prior 


8 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


to  the  discovery  of  the  river,  had  any  pretensions  to  tcrritoriftl  rights 
on  the  Northwfst  coast  of  Atucrica. 

The  waters  of  the  Colunihia  River  extend,  by  the  Multnomah,  to 
the  42°  of  lat.  where  its  source  approaches  within  a  few  niih's  of 
those  of  I'latte  and  Arkansas,  and  liy  Chirli's  river,  to  the  ;10tli  or 
5lHt  (U'gree  of  hit.:  thence  descending  Southward  till  its  sources  al- 
most intersect  those  of  the  Missouri. 

To  the  territory  thus  watered  and  immediately  contiguous  to  the 
original  possessions  of  the  United  States,  as  first  bounded  by  the 
Mississippi,  they  consider  their  right  to  be  now  established  by  all  the 
principles  which  have  ever  been  ap|)lied  to  European  settlements 
npon  the  American  hemisphere. 

By  the  IJkase  of  the  Emperor  Alexander,  of  ^'j.  September, 
1821,  an  exclusive  territorial  right,  on  the  Northwest  coast  of  Amer- 
ica, is  asserted  as  belonging  to  Russia,  and  as  extending  from  the 
Northern  extremity  of  the  continent  to  latitude  51,  and  the  naviga- 
tion and  fishery  of  all  other  nations  are  interdicted  by  the  same 
Ukase,  to  the  extent  of  100  Italian  miles  from  the  coast. 

When  Mr.  Poletica,  the  late  Russian  Minister  here,  was  called 
upon  to  set  forth  the  grounds  of  right,  conformable  to  the  laws  of 
nations,  which  authorized  the  issuing  of  this  decree,  he  answered,  in 
his  letters  of  28th  February  and  2d  April,  1822,  by  alleging,  first, 
discovery,  occupancy,  and  uninterrupted  possession. 

It  appears,  upon  examination,  that  these  claims  have  no  foundation 
in  fact.  The  right  of  iliscovenj,  oi\  tliis  continent,  claimed  by  Russia, 
is  reduced  to  the  probability  that,  in  174  U  Captain  Tchirikoff  saw, 
from  the  sea,  the  mountain  called  St.  Elias.  in  about  the  59th  degree 
of  North  latitude.  The  Spanish  navigators,  as  early  as  1582,  had 
discovered,  as  far  Noi'th  as  57°  30' 

As  to  occupancy,  Captain  Cook,  in  1779,  had  the  express  declara- 
tion of  Mr.  Ismalolf,  the  chief  of  the  Russian  settlement  at  Oonalas- 
ka,  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the  continent  in  America;  and  in  the 
Nootka  Sound  controversy,  between  Spain  and  Great  Britain,  it  is 
explicitly  stated,  in  the  Spanish  documents,  that  Russia  had  disclaim- 
ed all  pretension  to  interfere  with  the  Spanish  exclusive  rights  to  be- 
yond Prince  William's  Sound,  lat.  61.  No  evidence  has  been  exhi- 
bited of  any  Russian  settlement  on  this  continent.  South  and  East  of 
Prince  William's  Sound,  to  this  day,  with  the  exception  of  that  in 
California,  made  in  181G. 

It  never  has  been  admitted,  by  the  various  European  nations  which 
have  tbrmcd  settlements  in  this  hemisphere,  that  the  occupation  of  an 
island  ga\e  any  i  hiini  whatever  to  territorial  possessions  on  the 
continent  lo  whirli  it  was  adjoining.  The  recognized  principle  has 
rather  been  tlie  reverse;  as,  by  the  law  of  nature,  islands  must  be 
rather  considered  as  appendages  to  continents,  than  continents  to 
islands. 

The  only  color  of  claim  alleged  by  Mr.  Poletica,  which  has  an 
appearance  of  plausibility,  is  that  which  he  asserts  as  an  authentic 

?  Spanish  packet  St.  Charles,  commanded 


( 


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t-ut,  «'that,  in  1789, 


by 


[  Doc.  No.  65.  ] 


d 


•Ights 


Jiad 


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«<  Cnptnin  Ilnro,  found,  in  the  latitude  48  and  49,  Russian  settlements 
"  to  the  iiiiniher  of  eight,  consisting,  in  the  whole,  of  twenty  families, 
<«  iiiid  4(]'2  individtials/'  Dut,  more  than  twenty  years  sincey  Flurieu 
hud  shown,  in  liis  introduction  to  the  voyage  of  Marchand,  that«  in 
this  statement  there  wus  a  mistake  of,  at  least,  ton  degrees  of  lati- 
tude; and  that,  instead  of  4H  and  49.  it  should  read,  58  and  59. 
This  is,  prohahly,  not  the  only  mistake  in  the  account.  It  rests,  al- 
together, upon  the  credit  of  two  private  letters;  one  written  from  St. 
Bias,  and  the  other  from  the  city  of  Mexico,  to  Spain,  there  commu- 
nicated to  a  French  consul  in  ime  of  the  Spanish  ports,  and  by  him 
to  the  French  minister  of  marine.  They  were  written  in  October, 
1788,  and  August,  1789.  We  have  seen  that,  in  1790,  Russia  expli- 
citly disclaimed  interfcTing  with  the  exclusive  rights  of  Spain  to 
beyond  Trincc  William's  Sound,  in  latitude  61;  and  Vancouver,  in 
1794,  was  iniormcd  by  the  Russians  on  the  spot,  that  their  most 
Eastern  settlement  there,  was  on  Hinchinbrook  Island,  at  Port  Et- 
ches, which  laid  been  established  in  the  afurse  of  the  preceding  summer, 
and  that  the  adjacent  continent  was  a  sterile  and  uninhabited  country. 
Until  the  Nootka  Sound  contest,  Great  Britain  had  never  advanced 
any  claim  to  territory  upon  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  by 
right  of  occupation.  L'ndcr  the  treaties  of  1763,  her  territorial 
rights  were  bounded  by  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  i:2d  .Inly,  1793,  Mackenzie  readied  the  shores  of  the  Paci- 
fic, by  land,  from  Canada,  in  latitude  52,  21,  north,  longitude  128,  2, 
west  of  Grcenwi(  h. 

It  is  stated  in  the  52d  niunber  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  in  the  arti- 
cle upon  Kotzebue's  voyage,  '*  that  the  whole  country,  from  latitude 
"  56  SO  to  the  United  States,  in  latitude  48,  or  thereabouts,  is  now, 
"  and  has  long  been,  in  the  actual  possession  of  the  British  North- 
"  west  Company" — that  this  comjiany  have  a  post  on  the  borders  of 
a  river  in  latitude  54  30.  north,  longitude  125,  west,  and  that  in  lati- 
tude 55  15,  north,  longitude  129  44  west,  "by  this  time,  (March, 
*<  1822,)  the  United  Company  of  the  Northwest  and  Hudson's  Bay, 
"  have,  in  all  probability,  formed  an  establishment." 

It  is  not  imaginable  that,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  world, 
any  European  nation  shoidd  entertain  the  project  of  settling  a  colony 
on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America;  that  the  United  States  should 
form  establishments  there,  with  views  of  absolute  territorial  right, 
and  inland  communicatioi*,  is  not  only  to  be  expected,  but  is  pointed 
out  by  the  finger  of  nature,  and  has  been  for  years  a  subject  of  se- 
rious deliberation  in  Congress.  A  plan  has,  for  several  sessions, 
been  before  tiiem.  for  establishing  a  territorial  government  on  the  bo- 
ders  of  tlie  Columbia  river.  It  will,  undoubtedly,  be  resumed  at  their 
next  session,  and  even  if  then  again  postponed,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt 
that,  ill  the  course  of  a  very  few  years,  it  must  be  carried  into  effect. 
As  yet,  however,  the  only  useful  purpose  to  which  the  Northwest  Coast 
of  America  has  been,  or  can  he  made  subservient  to  the  settlements 
of  civilized  men,  are  the  fisheries  on  its  adjoining  seas,  and  trade 
with  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  country.  These  have,  hither- 
2 


10 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


to,  been  enjoyed  in  common  by  tbe  people  of  the  United  States,  and 
by  the  Biitish  and  Russian  nations.  The  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and 
Fi'ench  nations,  have,  also,  participated  in  them,  hitherto,  without 
other  annoyance  than  that  which  resulted  from  the  exclusive  territo- 
rial claims  of  Spain,  so  long  as  they  were  insisted  on  by  her. 

The  United  States  and  Gieat  Britain,  have  both  protested  against 
tlie  Russian  Imperial  Ukase,  of  ^V  September,  1821.  At  the  propo- 
sal of  the  Russian  Government,  a  full  power  and  instructions  are 
now  transmitted  to  Mr.  Middleton,  for  the  adjustment,  by  amicable 
negotiation,  of  the  conflicting  claims  of  the  parties  on  this  subject. 

We  have  been  informed  by  the  Baron  de  Tuyll,  that  a  similar  au- 
thority has  been  given  on  the  i)art  of  the  Britisli  Government  to  Sir 
Charles  Bagot. 

Previous  to  the  restoration  of  the  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  Co- 
lumbia River,  in  1818,  and  again,  upon  the  fii-st  introduction  in  Con- 
gress of  the  plan  for  constituting  a  territorial  governmetit  there,  sonic 
disposition  was  manifested  by  Sir  Charles  Bagot  and  Mr.  Canning, 
to  dispute  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  tliat  estahlisliment;  and 
some  vague  intimation  was  given  of  British  claims  on  the  Northwest 
Coast.  The  restoration  of  the  place,  and  the  convention  of  1818, 
were  considered  as  a  final  disposal  of  Mr.  Bagot's  objections,  and 
Mr.  Canning  declined  committing  to  j)aper  those  which  he  had  iuti- 
uiated  in  conversation. 

The  discussion  of  the  Russian  pretensions  in  the  negotiation  now 
proposed,  necessarily  involves  the  interests  of  the  three  Powers,  and 
reniiers  it  manifestly  proper  that  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
should  come  to  a  mutual  understanding,  with  respect  to  their  respec- 
tive pretensions,  as  well  as  upon  their  joint  views  with  reference  to 
those  of  Russia.  Copies  of  the  instructions  to  Mr.  Middleton  are, 
therefore,  herewith  transmitted  to  you:  and  the  President  wishes  you 
to  confer  freely  with  the  British  Goverimicnt  on  the  subject. 

The  principles  settled  by  the  Nootka  Sound  convention  of  28tU 
October,  1790,  weie — 

1st.  That  the  rights  of  fishing  in  the  Soutli  Seas:  of  trading  with 
the  natives  of  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America;  and  of  making  settle- 
ments on  the  coast  itself,  for  thei)urposcs  of  that  trade,  nortli  of  tho 
actual  settlements  of  Spain,  were  common  to  all  the  European  nations, 
and,  of  course,  to  the  United  States. 

2d.  That  so  far  as  the  actual  settlements  of  Spain  had  extended, 
she  possessed  the  exclusive  i-ights.  tei-ritorial.  and  of  navigation  a»id 
fishery;  extending  to  the  distance  of  ten  miJes  from  tlie  coasts  so  adw 
ally  occupied. 

3d.  That,  on  the  coasts  of  South  America,  and  the  adjacent  Islands, 
south  of  the  parts  already  occupied  by  Spain,  no  settlement  should 
thereafter  be  made  either  by  British  or  Spanish  suhjects:  but,  on  both 
sides,  should  be  retained  the^liberty  of  landing  and  of  erecting  tempo- 
rary buildings  for  tlie  purposes  of  the  fishery.  These  rights  were,  also, 
of  course,  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

The  exclusive  rights  of  Spain  to  any  part  of  the  American  conti- 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


11 


s,  and 

e,  and 

itliout 

eirito- 


I 


nents  have  ceased.  Tliat  portion  of  the  convention,  therefore,  which 
recognizes  the  exclusive  colonial  rights  of  Spain  on  these  continents, 
though  confirmed,  as  between  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  by  the  first 
additional  article  to  the  treaty  of  the  5th  of  July,  1814,  has  been  ex- 
tinguished by  the  fact  of  the  Indejiendencc  of  the  South  American 
nations  and  of  Mexico.  Those  independent  nations  will  possess 
the  rights  incident  to  that  condititm,  and  their  ter«'itories  will,  of 
course,  be  subject  to  no  exclusive  right  of  navigation  in  their  vicinity, 
or  of  access  to  them,  by  any  foreign  nation. 

A  necessary  consequence  of  this  state  of  things,  will  be,  that  the 
American  continents,  henceforth,  will  no  longer  be  subject  to  coloni' 
zaiion.  Occupied  by  civilized,  independent  nations,  they  will  be  ac- 
cessible to  Europeans,  and  each  other,  on  that  footing  alone;  and  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  in  every  part  of  it,  will  remain  open  to  the  navigation 
of  all  nations,  in  like  manner  with  the  Atlantic. 

Incidental  to  the  cojidition  of  national  independence  and  sovereign- 
ty, the  rights  of  interior  navigation  of  their  rivers  will  belong  to  each 
of  the  American  nations  within  its  own  territories. 

The  application  of  colonial  principles  of  exclusion,  therefore,  can- 
not be  admitted  by  the  United  States  as  lawful,  u])on  any  part  of  the 
Northwest  Coast  of  America,  or  as  belonging  to  any  European  na- 
tion. Their  own  settlements  there,  when  organized  as  territorial 
governments,  will  be  adapted  to  the  ficedom  of  their  own  institutions, 
and,  as  constituent  parts  olthe  Union,  be  subject  to  the  principles  and 
provisions  of  their  constitution 

The  right  of  carrying  on  trade  with  the  natives  throughout  the 
Northwest  Coast,  thev  cannot  renounce.  With  the  Russian  settle- 
ments  at  Kodiack,  or  at  New  Archangel,  they  may  fairly  claim  the 
advantage  of  a  fur  ti'ade,  having  so  long  enjoyed  it  unmolested,  and 
because  it  has  been,  and  would  continue  to  be,  as  advantageous,  at  least, 
to  tliose  settlements  as  to  them.  But  they  will  not  contest  the  right 
of  Russia  to  prohibit  the  traftic,  as  strictly  confined  to  the  Russian 
settlement  itself,  and  not  extending  to  the  original  natives  of  tlie  coast. 

If  the  British  Northwest  and  Hudscm's  Bay  Compatiies  have  any 
posts  on  the  coast,  as  suggested  in  the  article  of  the  Quarterly  Re- 
view, above  cited,  the  3d  article  of  the  convention  of  the  2()th  October, 
1818,  is  applicable  to  them.  Mr.  Middleton  is  authorized,  by  his  in- 
structions, to  propose  an  article  of  similar  import,  to  be  inserted  in  a 
joint  convention  between  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  Rus- 
sia, for  a  term  often  years  irom  its  signature.  You  are  authorized  to 
make  tlie  same  proposal  to  the  Britisli  Government,  and,  with  a  view 
U)  draw  a  definite  line  of  demarkation.  for  the  future,  to  stipulate 
that  no  settleme!it  shall  hereafter  he  made  on  the  Northwest  Coast,  or 
on  any  of  the  islands  tliereto  adjoining,  by  Rtissian  subjects  south  of 
latitude  55:  by  citizens  of  the  United  States  north  of  latitude  51,  or 
by  Biitish  subjects,  either  south  «d'  51  or  n<n'}h  of  55  I  mention 
the  latitude  o(  51  as  the  bound  within  which,  we  are  willing  to  limit 
the  future  settlement  of  the  United  States,  because  it  is  not  to  be 
doubted  that  the  Columbia  river  branches  as  far  north  as  51,  although 


12 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


it  is  most  probably,  not  the  Tacoutche  Tesse  of  Mackenzie.  As,  how- 
ever, the  line  already  runs  in  latitude  49,  to  the  Stony  Mountains, 
should  it  be  earnestly  insisted  upon  by  Great  Britain,  we  will  consent 
to  carry  it  in  continuance,  on  the  same  parallel  to  the  sea.  Copies 
of  this  instruction  will  likewise  be  forwarded  to  Mr.  Mi<ldleton,  with 
whom  you  will  freely,  but  cautiously  correspond,  on  this  subject,  as 
well  as  in  relation  to  your  negotiation  respecting  the  suppression  of 
the  slave  trade. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect, 

Sir,  your  very  humble 
And  obedient  servant, 
JOHN  QUIMCY  ADAMS. 
Richard  Rush,  Envoy  Extraordinary 
and  Minister  Pleiiipotentiary  U.  S.  London. 


Extract  of  a  Letter  from  Mr.  Rush  to  Mr.  Mamsj  dated  .9ug%ist 

IZtfh  1824. 


No.  10. 


VI.     NORTHWEST  COAST  OF  AMERICA. 


I  now  come  to  the  last  of  the  subjects  that  the  President  confided  to 
me — that  contained  in  your  instructions  of  the  2d  of  July,  1823,  re- 
lative to  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America.  Although  no  arrangemcut 
was  concluded  on  this  subject,  it  is  not  the  less  incumbent  upon  me 
carefully  to  apprize  you  of  the  discussions  by  which  it  was  marked. 
They  will  probably  be  found  not  without  interest.  In  one  of  my  pre- 
liminary communications  res|)ecting  the  negotiation,  viz.  my  number 
356,  I  informed  you,  that  I  had  thought  it  necessary,  yielding  to 
events  that  transpired  after  your  instructions  were  received,  to  treat 
of  this  subject  of  the  Northwest  Coast  with  this  Government  alone, 
without  considering  the  negotiation  as  common  also  to  Russia,  as  had 
been  contemplated  by  your  instructions.  In  tiiis  deviation  from  your 
instructions,  I  .assigned  my  reasons,  which,  as  they  weighed  strongly 
with  me  .at  the  time,  and  do  not  appear,  from  atiy  lights  that  I  possess, 
to  have  lost  any  of  their  force  since,  I  must  hope  will  have  been 
approved.  My  duty,  therefore,  will  now  be  confined  to  informing 
you  of  the  discussions  that  took  place,  in  my  hands,  with  Britain, 
and  as  limited  to  the  interests  of  the  United  States  and  Britain. 
These  aro  the  only  discussions,  1  may  add,  witli  which  I  have  an}  ac- 
quaintance, not  having  heard  from  Mr.  Middlcton  of  the  nature  of 
those  that  were  carried  on  at  St.  I'ctersburgh,  though,  through  the 
kindness  of  the  Russian  Ambassador  at  this  Court,  I  have,  very 
recently,  been  apprized  of  their  result.  It  is  probable  that  it  has  been 
through  some  accident  thfit  I  have  not  heard  from  Mr.  Middleton, 
having  apprized  him  of  the  course  that  I  had  felt  myself  compelled  to 
adopt.    In  obedience  to  your  instructions,  I  also  wrote  to  him  on  the 


SI 

a 
I 

\ 

t 

i 
I 
( 
( 


I 


^ 


m 


I  Doc.  No.  65.  ] 


18 


subject  of  the  Slave  Trade,  transmitting  him  a  copy  of  the  convention 
with  this  Government,  as  soon  as  I  had  signed  it. 

In  another  of  my  communicf.tions,  written  before  the  negotiation 
opened,  viz.  my  number  358, 1  gave  you  a  general  intimation  of  what 
I  then  supposed  would  be  the  terms  upon  which  tliis  Government 
would  be  disposed  to  arrange  with  us  the  questions  of  boundary  upon 
the  Northwest  Coast. 

At  that  time,  however,  I  had  been  put  in  possession  of  nothing  dis- 
tinctive or  final  upon  the  subject,  and  was  to  wait  the  arrival  of  the 
negotiation  itself,  for  the  full  and  authentic  statement  of  the  British 
claims.  I  am  the  more  particular  in  referring  back  to  this  latter 
communication,  as  it  appears  that  I  was  under  important  misappre- 
hensions in  it,  in  regard  to  the  true  nature  of  the  British  claims.  They 
proved,  on  formally  and  accurately  disclosing  themselves,  to  be  far 
more  extensive  than  I  had  believed,  and  were  advanced  in  a  manner 
more  confident  than  I  had  even  then  anticipated. 

I  opened  this  subject  with  the  British  IMenipotentiaries  at  the 
eleventh  conference.  I  remarked,  that,  although  it  had  been  under- 
stood in  my  preparatory  conversations  with  the  proj)er  organ  of  his 
Majest>  's  Government,  that  the  respective  territorial  or  other  claims 
of  the  United  States  and  Russia,  as  well  as  of  Great  Britain  and  Rus- 
sia, regarding  the  country  westward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  were 
to  be  matter  of  separate  discussion  at  St.  Petersburgh:  yat,  that  those 
of  the  United  States  and  Britain  were  now,  according  to  the  under- 
standing in  the  same  conversations,  to  be  taken  up  for  formal  discus- 
sion in  London. 

My  Government  was  aware,  that  the  convention  of  October,  1818, 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  one  article  of  which 
contained  a  temporary  regulation  of  this  interest,  had  still  four  years 
to  run;  but  the  President,  nevertheless,  was  of  opinion,  that  the  pre- 
sent was  not  an  unsuitable  moment  for  attempting  a  new  pnd  more 
definite  adjustment  of  the  respective  claims  of  the  two  Powers  to  the 
country  in  question.  It  was  a  counti-y  daily  assuming  an  aspect, 
political,  commercial,  and  territorial,  of  more  and  more  interest  to 
the  United  States.  It  bore  upon  their  relations  with  other  States, 
upon  their  fisheries  as  well  as  their  commerce  in  the  Pacific,  upon 
their  fur  trade,  and  the  whole  system  of  their  intercourse  with  vast 
tril»es  of  the  Indians.  I  reminded  tlie  British  Plenipotentiaries,  that, 
by  the  third  article  of  the  treaty  of  Wasliington,  of  February  the 
twenty-second,  1819,  between  the  United  States  and  Spain, 'ihcloun- 
dary  line  between  the  two  countries  was  fixed,  in  part,  along  tho 
Southern  Bank  of  the  Arkansas,  to  its  source,  in  latitude  42  north, 
and  thence,  by  that  parallel  of  latitude,  to  the  South  Sea;  and  that 
Spain  had  also  renounced  to  the  United  States,  by  the  same  article, 
all  her  rights  north  of  that  parallel.  I  then  made  known,  at  tliis  and 
other  conferences — for,  from  the  extent  of  the  subject,  I  was  unable 
even  to  open  it  all  at  one  conference — what  I  understood  to  be  the  na- 
ture of  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the  whole  of  the  country  north 
of  the  parallel  stated.    I  said,  that,  apart  from  all  the  right  as  thus 


14 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


acquired  from  Spain,  which,  however,  was  regarded  by  my  Govern- 
ment as  surpassing  the  right  of  all  other  European  Powers,  on  that 
coast,  the  United  Slates  cJaimed,  in  their  own  right,  and  as  their  ab- 
solute and  exclusive  sovereignty  and  dominion,  the  whole  of  the  coun- 
try west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  from  the  42d  to  at  least  as  far  up 
as  the  51st  degree  of  north  latitude.  This  claim  they  rested  upon 
their  first  discovei*}  of  the  river  Columbia,  followed  up  by  an  efi'ectivo 
settlement  at  its  mouth — a  settlement  which  was  reduced  by  the  arms 
of  Britain  during  the  late  war,  but  formally  surrendered  up  to  the 
United  States  at  the  return  of  peace. 

Their  right,  by  first  discovery,  they  deemed  peculiarly  strong,  hav- 
ing been  made  not  only  from  the  sea,  b)-  Captain  Gray,  but  also 
from  the  interioi-,  by  Lewis  and  Clarke,  who  first  discovered  its 
sources,  and  explored  its  whole  inland  course  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
It  had  been  ascertained  that  the  Columbia  extended,  by  the  River 
Multnomah,  to  as  low  as  42  North;  and,  by  Clarke's  river,  to  a  point 
as  high  up  as  51,  if  not  beyond  that  point:  and  to  this  entire  range  of 
country,  contiguous  to  the  original  dominion  of  the  United  States, 
and  made  a  part  of  it  by  the  almost  intermingling  waters  of  each, 
the  United  States,  I  said,  considered  their  title  as  established,  by  all 
the  principles  that  had  ever  been  applied  on  this  subject  by  the  Pow- 
ers  of  Europe,  to  settlements  in  the  American  hemisphere.  I  assert- 
ed, that  a  nation,  discovering  a  country,  by  entering  the  mouth  of  its 
principal  river  at  the  sea  coast,  must  necessarily  be  allowed  to  cl  aim 
and  hold,  as  great  an  extent  of  the  interior  country  as  was  dcscrihed 
by  the  course  of  such  principal  river,  and  its  tributary  streams:  and 
that  the  claim,  to  this  extent,  became  doubly  strong,  where,  as  in  the 
present  instance,  the  same  river  had  also  heen  discovered  and  explor- 
ed from  its  very  mountain  springs  to  the  sea. 

Such  an  union  of  titles,  imparting  validity  to  each  other,  did  not 
often  exist.  I  remarked,  that  it  was  scarcely  to  be  presumed  that 
any  European  nation  would  henceforth  project  any  colonial  establish- 
ment on  any  part  of  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  which,  as  yet, 
had  never  been  used  to  any  other  useful  purpose  than  that  of  trading 
with  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  or  fishing  in  the  neighboring  seas; 
but  that  the  Uniteci  States  should  contemplate,  and  at  one  day  form, 
permanent  establishments  there,  was  naturally  to  be  expected,  as 
proximate  to  their  own  possessions,  and  falling  under  their  immediate 
jurisdiction.  Speaking  of  the  Powers  of  Europe,  who  had  ever  ad- 
vanced claims  to  any  i)art  of  this  coast,  I  referred  to  the  principles 
that  had  been  settled  by  the  Nootka  Sound  Convention  of  1790,  and 
remarked  that  Spain  had  now  lost  all  her  exclusive  colonial  rights, 
that  were  recognized  under  that  Convention,  first,  by  the  fa(  t  of  tiio 
Independence  of  the  South  American  States  and  of  Mexico,  and 
next,  by  her  express  renunciation  of  all  her  rights,  of  whatever  kind, 
above  the  42d  degree  of  North  Latitude,  to  the  United  States.  Those 
new  States  would,  themselves,  now  possess  the  riglits  incident  to  their 
condition  of  political  independence,  and  the  claims  of  the  United  States 
above  the  42d  parallel,  as  high  up  as  60,  claims,  as  well  in  their  own 


( 


i 


hav- 

also 

I   its 


pDoc.  No.  65.] 


15 


I'iglit,  as  by  their  succession  to  the  title  of  Fnain,  would  henceforth 
neci'ssaril}  preclude  other  nations  from  forming  colonial  osiahlish- 
inents  upon  any  part  of  the  American  continents.  I  was,  therefore, 
instructed  to  say,  that  my  Government  no  longer  considered  any  part 
of  those  Continents  as  open  to  futui'e  colonization  by  any  of  the  Pow- 
ers of  Euro|)e,  and  that  this  w as  a  principle  upon  which  I  should  in- 
sist in  the  course  of  the  negotiation. 

it  was  in  this  manner  that  1  first  laid  down,  for  the  information  of 
this  (i<»vcrnment,  the  princi[iles  contained  in  your  despatch,  or  flow- 
ing from  tliem.  1  combined,  w itii  what  you  had  written  to  me,  the 
contents  of  the  Message  of  the  l*resi(tent,  to  Congress,  of  the  2d  of 
December  last,  a  document  v "  '.cli  1  could  not  but  regard  witb  the 
highest  solemnity  towards  marking  out  my  duty.  I  added,  that  the 
United  States  did  not  desire  to  interfere  with  the  actual  settlements 
of  other  nations  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  and  that,  in  re- 
gard to  those  which  tJreat  Britain  might  have  formed  above  the  51st 
degree  of  latitude,  they  would  remain,  with  all  such  rights  of  trade 
with  the  natives,  and  riglitsof  lishery,  as  those  settlements  had  enjoy- 
ed hitherto.  As  regarded  future  settlements,  by  either  of  the  parties, 
I  said  that  it  was  tlie  wisii  of  my  G«)vertmjent  to  regulate  these  upon 
principles  that  might  be  mutually  satisfactory,  and  tend  to  prevoit  all 
collision.  I  was,  tliercfore.  instructed  to  propose,  first,  the  extension 
to  a  further  term  of  ten  yesirs,  of  the  third  article  of  the  Convention 
of  October,  1818:  and,  secondly,  that  Britain  should  stipulate,  during 
the  like  term,  that  no  settlement  siiould  be  made  by  any  of  her  sub- 
jects on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  or  the  Islands  adjoining, 
either  South  of  the  fifty-first  degree  of  latitude,  or  North  of  the  fifty- 
fifth  degree:  the  United  States  stipulating  that  none  should  be  made 
by  their  citizetjs  North  of  the  fifty-first  degree.  This  proposal 
I  drew  up  in  form,  and  annexed  it  (marked  F)  to  the  Protocol  of 
the  twelfth  conference.  I  said,  that  these  limits  were  supposed  to  be 
suffici«'nt  to  secure  to  Great  Britain  all  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from 
tlie  settlements  of  her  Northwest  and  Hudson's  Bay  Companies  on  that 
coast,  and  were  indicated  with  that  view.  The  insertion  of  a  limit 
often  years,  which  I  introduced  as  applicable  to  the  above  restriction 
upon  futui'e  settlements,  may  require  expl»nation.  In  your  despatch 
to  me,  as  I  understood  it,  there  was  no  such  limit  of  time  specified. 

But,  in  your  i'lstructions  to  Mr.  Middlcton.  of  the  22d  of  July, 
1823  which  you  enclosed  to  me,  I  perceive  that  there  was  this  limit 
introduced,  and  that  it  was  under  this  limit  the  proposal  was  de- 
scribed to  him  as  the  one  which  I  was  to  submit  to  the  British  Go- 
vernment. I  C(mchided  that  it  would  be  erring  on  the  safe  side,  to 
take,  in  tliis  particular,  the  instructions  to  Mr.  Middlcton,  as  my 
guide,  and  I  did  so  accordingly. 

It  is  proper  now,  as  on  the  question  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  I 
should  give  you  faithful  information  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Bri- 
tish Plenipotentiaries  received  my  proposal,  and  tlie  principles  under 
which  I  had  introduced  it,  I  may  set  out  by  saying,  in  a  word,  that 
tlicy  totally  declined  the  one.  and  totally  denied  the  other.  I'hey  said 


16 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


that  Great  Britain  considered  the  whole  of  the  unoccupied  parts  oi 
America,  as  heing  open  to  her  future  settlements,  in  like  manner  as 
heretofore.  They  included  within  these  parts,  as  well  tliat  portion  of 
the  ^iorthwest  Coast,  lying  between  the  42d  and  31st  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, as  any  other  parts.  The  principle  of  colonization  on  that  coast, 
or  elsewhere,  on  any  portion  of  those  continents  not  yet  occupied, 
Great  Britain  was  not  prepared  to  relinquish.  Neither  was  she  pre- 
pared to  accede  to  the  exclusive  claim  of  the  United  States.  She  had 
not,  by  her  convention  with  Spain,  in  1790,  or  at  any  other  period, 
conceded  to  that  Power  any  exclusive  rights  on  that  coast,  w  here  ac- 
tual settlements  had  not  been  formed.  She  considered  the  same  pi'in- 
ciples  a])plicablc  to  it  now,  as  then.  She  could  not  concede  to  the 
United  States,  who  held  the  Spanish  title,  claims  which  she  had  felt 
herself  obliged  to  resist,  when  advanced  by  Spain,  and  on  her  resist- 
ance to  which,  tlie  credit  of  Great  Britain  had  been  thought  to  depend. 

Nor  could  Great  Britain  at  all  admit,  the  Plenipotentiaries  said, 
the  claim  of  tlie  United  States,  as  founded  on  their  own  first  discovery. 
It  had  been  objectionable  with  her  in  the  negotiation  of  1818,  and 
had  not  been  adnniitcd  since.  Her  surrender  to  the  United  States  of 
the  j)ost  at  Columbia  River,  after  the  late  war,  was  in  fulfilment  of 
the  provisions  of  the  first  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  witliout  af- 
fecting questions  of  right  on  either  side.  Britain  did  not  admit  the 
validity  of  the  discovery  by  Captain  Gray.  He  had  only  been  on  an 
enterprise  of  his  own,  as  an  individual,  and  the  British  Government 
wasycttobcinformed  under  whatprinciples  or  usage,  among  the  nations 
of  Europe,  his  having  ilrst  entered  or  discovered  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Colimibia,  admitting  this  to  have  been  the  fact,  was  to  carry  after  it 
such  a  portion  of  the  interior  country  as  was  alleged.  Great  Britain 
entered  her  dissent  to  such  a  claim;  and.  least  of  all,  did  she  admit 
that  the  circumstance  of  a  merchant  vessel  of  the  United  States  hav- 
ing penetrated  the  coast  of  that  continent  at  Columbia  River,  was  to 
be  taken  to  extend  a  claim  in  favor  of  the  United  States  along  the 
same  coast,  both  above  and  below  that  river,  over  latitudes  that  had 
heen  previously  discovered  and  explored  by  Great  Britain  herself,  in 
expeditions  fitted  out  under  the  authority  and  with  the  resources  of  the 
nation.  This  had  been  done  by  Captain  Cook,  to  speak  of  no  others, 
whose  voyage  was  at  least  prior  to  that  of  Captain  Gray.  On  the 
coast,  only  a  few  degrees  South  of  the  Columbia,  Britain  had  made 
purchases  of  territory  from  the  natives  before  the  United  States  were 
an  independent  power;  and  upon  that  river  itself,  or  upon  rivers  tliat 
flowed  into  it.  West  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  lier  subjects  had  formed 
settlements  coeval  with,  if  not  prior  to,  the  settlement  by  American 
citizens  at  its  mouth. 

Such  is  a  summary  of  the  grou)ids  taken  at  the  very  outset  by  the 
British  PlenJ])otentiaries,  in  opposition  to  our  claims.  On  my  re- 
marking, immediately,  and  before  proceeding  to  any  discussion  of 
them,  that  I  had  not  before  heen  aware  of  the  extent  and  cliaracter  of 
all  these  objections,  they  replied,  that  it  was  also  for  the  first  time 
tjiat  they  had  heen  apprised,  in  any  authentic  and  full  way,  of  the 


i 


i 


r  Doc.  No.  65.  ] 


17 


ts  of 

r  as 

mn  of 

liiti- 

oast, 

)ied, 

pre- 

had 

iod, 

ac- 


I 


nature  of  the  claims,  as  I  had  now  stated  them,  on  behalf  of  the  United 
States;  claims  which  they  said  they  were  bound  to  dechire.  at  once. 
Great  Britain  was  wholly  unprei)ared  to  admit;  and,  especially,  that 
which  aimed  at  interdicting  her  from  the  right  of  future  colonization 
in  America- 
Resuming  the  subject,  I  said,  tliat  it  was  unknown  to  my  Govern- 
ment, that  Great  Britain  had  ever  even  advanced  an\  claim  t«)  terri- 
tory on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  by  the  right  of  occupation, 
bctbre  the  Nootka  Sound  controversy.  It  was  clear,  that,  by  the 
treaty  of  Paris,  of  1763,  her  territorial  rights  in  America,  v\ere 
bounded  Westward  by  the  Mississippi.  The  claim  of  the  United 
States,  under  the  discovery  by  Captain  Gray,  was,  therefore,  at  all 
events,  sufficient  to  overreach,  in  point  of  time,  any  tliat  Great  Bri- 
tain could  alleg.^  along  that  coast,  on  the  gi-ound  of  prior  occupation 
or  settlement.  As  to  any  alleged  settlements  by  her  subjects  on  the 
Columbia,  or  on  rivers  fulling  into  it.  earlier,  or  as  early  as  the  one 
formed  by  American  citizens  at  Astoria,  I  knew  not  of  them,  and  was 
not  prepared  to  admit  the  fact.  As  to  the  discovery  itself  of  Captain 
Gray,  it  was  not  for  a  moment  to  be  drawn  into  ([uestion.  It  was  a 
fact  before  the  whole  woi'ld.  The  very  geographers  of  Britain  had 
adopted  the  name  which  he  had  given  to  tliis  river. 

Vancouver  himself,  undoubtedly  the  first  British  navigator  who 
had  ever  entered  it,  admitted  that  he  found  Captain  Gray  thei-e;  and 
the  very  instructions  to  this  Britisli  officer,  drawn  up  in  March,  1791, 
and  to  be  seen  among  the  records  of  t.'-e  British  admiralty.  ejq)ressly 
referred  by  name,  to  the  previous  expedition  in  that  quarter  of  the 
American  sloop,  the  Wasliington.  Was  this,  I  asked,  to  be  account- 
ed nothing?  Did  it  lie  with  a  foicign  Pov.er,  whose  own  archives 
might  supply  her  with  the  esseiitiar  incontestlble  fact  of  the  first  dis- 
covery by  the  vessel  of  another  Power,  of  a  vast  river  whose  waters, 
from  their  source  to  the  ocean,  had  remained  until  then,  totally  un- 
known to  all  civilized  nations — did  it  lie  with  such  foreign  I'ower  to 
say,  that  the  discovery  was  not  made  by  a  national  ship,  or  under 
national  authority?  The  United  States,  I  said,  could  admit  no  such 
di-tinction;  could  never  surrender,  under  it.  or  upon  any  ground, 
their  claim  to  this  discovery.  The  ship  of  Captain  Gray,  whether 
fitted  out  by  tiie  Government  of  the  United  Stales  or  not,  was  a  na- 
ti(Mial  ship.  If  she  was  not  so  in  a  technical  sense  of  the  word,  she 
was  in  the  full  sense  of  it,  applicable  to  sucii  an  occasion.  Slie  boro 
at  her  stern  the  Hag  of  the  nation,  sailed  forth  under  the  protection 
of  the  nation,  and  was  to  be  identified  with  the  lights  of  the  nation. 
The  extent  of  this  interior  country  attaching  to  this  discovery,  was 
founded,  I  said,  upon  a  princi[)le  at  once  reasonable  and  moderate— 
re;isonable,  because,  as  discovery  was  not  to  be  limited  to  tlie  local 
spot  of  a  first  landing  place,  tiiere  must  be  a  rule  botli  for  enlarging 
an''i  circnmscriliing  its  range;  and  none  nioi-c  proper  tiian  tiiat  of 
tuking  the  watercourses  whicli  nature  had  laid  down,  both  as  the  fair 
li.'iit !  of  the  country,  and  as  indis|)ensa!.>!e  (o  its  use  and  value — 
.moderate,  hecan^c  the  nations  u^  Kurope  had  "U'ten,  under  thvir  rights 


18 


[J)oc.  No.  65.] 


of  discovery,  ciiniccl  tlieir  claims  mucli  I'artlicr.  Here  1  instanced,  as 
siitHcientCoriny  piirpoHc,  and  pci'tinent  t(»  it,  the  tonus  in  wliicli  many 
ot*  the  royal  charters  and  letters  patent  had  been  gi-anted,  by  the 
C^o\^n  in  England,  to  individuals  proceeding  to  the  discovery  or  set- 
tlement of  new  countries  on  the  American  Continent:  Among  others, 
those  from  Ell/abetli,  in  1578.  to  Sir  Humphi-ey  Gilbert,  and,  in 
1584,  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh:  those  from  James  I,  to  Sir  Thomas 
Yates,  in  HiOfi  and  1607,  and  the  Georgia  charter  of  17^2.  All  these, 
extracts  fi'()(n  which  1  produced,  comprehended  a  range  of  counii-y 
fully  justifying  my  lemark.  By  the  words  of  the  last,  a  grant  is 
passed  to  all  territories  al(»ng  the  seacoast,  from  the  river  Savannah 
to  the  most  southern  stieam  '-of  another  great  river,  called  the  Ala- 
tamaha,  aiul  westwai'd  from  the  heads  of  the  said  rivers,  in  a  direct 
line,  to  the  South  seas."  'J'o  show  that  Britain  was  not  the  only 
liuropean  nation,  who,  in  her  territorial  claims  on  this  continent,  had 
had  an  eye  to  the  rule  oi'  assuming  water  courses  to  be  the  fittest 
boundaries,  1  also  cited  the  charter  of  Louis  XIV,  to  Crovat,  by 
which  "  all  the  country  drained  by  the  waters  emptying  directly  or 
indirectly  into  the  Mississippi,"  is  declared  to  be  comprehended  under 
the  name,  and  within  the  limits,  of  Louisiana. 

If  Britain  had  put  f(U*th  no  clain)Sonthe  Northwest  Coa.st,  founded 
on  jn'ior  occupation,  before  the  Nootka  Sound  contest,  still  less  could 
she  ever  have  estal)lished  any,  1  remarked,  at  any  period,  founded  on 
prior  discovery.  Claims  of  the  latter  class  belonged  wholly  to  Spain, 
and  now.  consefpiently,  to  the  United  States.  The  superior  title  of 
Spain  on  this  ground,  as  well  as  others,  was.  indeed,  capable  of  de- 
monstration. Russia  had  acknowledged  it  in  1790,  as  the  State  pa- 
pers of  the  Nootka  Sound  controversy  would  show.  The  memorial 
of  the  Spanish  Court  to  the  British  Minister,  on  that  occasion,  ex- 
pressly asserted,  tluit,  notwithstanding  all  the  attemj)ted  encroach- 
ments upon  the  Spanish  coasts  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  Spain  had  pre- 
served her  possessions  there  entire,  possessions  which  she  had  con- 
stantly, and  before  all  Europe,  on  that  and  other  (iccasions,  declared 
to  extend  to  as  high  at  least  as  the  sixtieth  degree  of  North  latitude. 
The  very  first  aiticle  of  the  Nootka  Sound  convention,  attested,  I 
said,  the  sui)eriority  of  l:er  title:  for,  whilst,  by  it,  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope generally  were  allowed  to  make  settlemeiits  on  that  coast,  it  was 
only  for  tlie  purposes  of  trade  with  the  natives,  thereby  excluding  the 
right  of  atiy  exclusive  or  colonial  establishments  for  other  purposes. 
As  to  any  claim  (ui  tiic  ])art  of  Britain  under  the  voyage  of  Captain 
Cook,  I  remarke<i,  that  this  was  .siutticiently  superseded,  (passing  by 
every  tiling  else.)  by  the  .lournal  of  the  Spanish  expedition  from  Sau 
Bias,  in  1775,  kept  by  Dcmj  Antonio  Maurclle,  for  an  account  of 
which,  I  referred  the  Britisli  IMenipotentiaries  to  the  work  of  Uaines 
Barrington,  a  British  author.  In  that  expedition,  consisting  of  a 
frigate  and  schooner,  fitted  ()ut  by  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  the  North- 
west Coast  was  visited  in  latitude 45,  47,  49,  55,  55,56,  57,  and  58,  not 
one  of  which  points,  thej'e  was  good  reason  f.r  believing,  had  ever  been 
explored,  or  as  much  as  seen,   up  to  tliat  day,  by  any  navigator  of 


ced,  as 
iiisiny 
by  the 
01*  set- 
)tliers, 
nnd,  ill 


[Doc.  No.  65.  ] 


i9 


'  ■  V 


i 


Great  Britain.  There  was,  too,  I  said,  tlie  voyage  of  Juan  Teres, 
prior  to  1775;  that  of  Aguilar,  in  I60l,  who  ex|doreil  that  loast  in  la- 
titude 45;  that  of  dc  Fuca,  in  1592,  who  explored  it  in  hititude  48, 
giving  the  name,  which  thoy  still  hore.  to  the  straits  in  tiiat  latitude, 
without  going  through  a  much  longer  list  of  other  early  Spanish  navi- 
gators in  that  sea,  whose  discovei'ics  were  confesstnlly  of  a  nature  to 
put  out  of  view  tiiose  of  all  other  nations.  I  finished  by  saying,  that, 
in  the  opinion  of  my  Government,  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  the 
whole  of  that  coast,  from  latitutle  42,  to  as  far  North  as  latitude  60, 
was.  thei*efore.  superior  to  tliat  of  Britain,  or  any  other  power;  first, 
Ihrough  the  proper  claim  of  the  United  States  by  discovery  and  settle- 
ment, and,  secondly,  as  miw  standing  in  the  place  of  Spain,  and  hold- 
ing in  their  hands  alMier  title. 

Neither  my  remarks  nor  my  authorities,  of  which  I  have  endeavor-  . 
ed  to  present  an  outline,  made  the  impression  upon  the  Britisli  I'lenipo- 
tentiarics  which  I  was  desirous  that  they  should  have  produced.  They 
repeated  their  animated  denials  of  the  title  of  the  United  States,  as  al- 
leged to  have  been  acquired  by  themselves,  enlarging  and  insisting  up- 
on their  objections  to  it,  as  I  have  already  stated  them.  Nor  were 
they  less  decided  in  their  renewed  impeachments  of  the  title  of  Spain. 
They  sai<l,  that  it  was  well  kn<iwn  to  them  w  hat  had  formerly  been  the 
pretensions  of  Spain  to  absolute  sovereignty  and  dominion  in  the  South 
Seas,  and  over  all  tlieshoresof  America  which  they  washed;  but,  that 
these  were  jirctensions  which  Britain  had  never  admitted:  on  the 
contrary,  she  had  strenuously  resisted  them.  Tliey  referred  to  the 
noteof  tiie  Britisli  Minister  to  the  Courtof  Spain,  of  May  16th,  1790, 
in  which  Britain  had  not  only  asseitcd  a  full  right  to  an  uninterrupted 
commerce  and  navigation  in  the  Pacific,  but  also  that  of  forming,  with 
the  consent  of  the  natives,  whatever  establislunents  she  th(Higlit  pro- 
per on  the  Northwest  Coast,  in  parts  not  already  occupied  by  other 
nations.  This  had  always  been  the  doctrine  of  Great  Britain,  and 
from  it,  nothing  that  was  <lue,  in  her  Qstimation,  to  other  Powers,  now 
called  upon  her  in  any  degree  to  depart. 

As  to  the  alleged  ])i'ioi'  discoveries  of  Spain,  all  along  that  coast, 
Britain  did  not  admit  them,  but  witli  great  qualification.  She  could 
never  admit  that  the  mere  fact  of  Spanish  navigators  having  first  seen 
the  coast  at  particular  points,  even  where  this  was  capable  of  being 
substantiated  as  the  fact,  without  any  subsequent  or  elHcient  acts  of 
sovereignty  or  settlement  following  on  tiie  part  of  Spain,  was  sufli- 
cient  to  exclude  all  other  nations  from  that  portion  of  the  globe.  Be- 
sides, they  said,  even  on  the  score  of  prior  discovery  on  tliat  coast,  at 
loast  as  far  up  as  the  48th  degree  of  north  latitude,  Britain  herself  had 
a  claim  over  all  otiier  nations. 

Here  they  referred  to  Drake's  expedition  in  1578,  who,  as  they  said, 
explored  that  coast  on  the  |)art  of  Kngland,  from  37  to  48  north,  mak- 
ing formal  claim  to  these  limits  in  tiie  name  of  Fjli/abeth,  and  giving 
the  name  of  New  Albion  to  all  tiie  country  whidi  tiiey  comprehended. 
Was  this,  they  asked,  to  lie  reputed  notiiing  in  tiie  comparison  of  prior 
discoveries,  and  did  it  not  even  take  in  a  large  part  of  the  very  coast 


20 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


now  claimed  by  the  United  States  as  of  prior  di.scovcry  on  their  side? 
Such  was  the  character  of  tlieir  remarks  on  this  part  of  tlie  title.  In 
connection  w  ith  them,  they  called  my  attention  to  the  report  of  a  se- 
lect committee  of  tlie  House  of  Representatives,  in  April  last,  on  the 
suhject  of  Columbia  River.  There  is  a  letter  from  General  Jesup  in  thin 
report,  adopted  by  the  committee  as  part  of  the  report,  and  which,  a« 
the  British  Plenipotentiaries  said,  had  acquired  importance  in  the  eyes 
of  their  Government  from  that  fact.  Tijey  commented  upon  several 
passages  of  this  letter,  a  newspaper  copy  of  which  they  held  in  their 
Iian<ls,  but  chietiy  on  that  part  which  contains  an  intimation  that  a 
removal  from  our  territory  of  ail  British  subjects,  now  allowed  to 
trade  on  the  waters  of  the  Columbia,  might  become  a  necessary  mea- 
sure on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  as  soon  as  the  convention  of 
1818  had  expired.  Of  this  intimation  the  Bi-itisn  Plenipotentiaries 
ccmipiiined,  as  one  calculated  to  put  Great  Britain  especially  upon  her 
guard  arriving,  an  the  document  did,  at  a  moment  when  a  friendly 
negotiation  was  pending  between  the  two  Powers,  for  the  adjustment 
of  their  relative  and  conflicting  claims  to  that  entii-e  district  of  coun-. 
try.  Had  1  any  know  ledge,  they  asked,  of  this  document?  I  replied 
that  1  had  not,  as  communicated  to  me  hy  my  Government.  All  that 
I  could  say  of  it  was,  and  this  I  would  say  confidently,  that  I  was  sure 
it  had  been  conceived  in  no  unfriendly  spirit  towards  Great  Britain. 
Yet.  I  was  hound,  unecpiivocally.  to  re-assert,  and  so  I  rcrpiested  the 
British  Plenipotentiaries  would  consider  me  as  doing,  the  full  an»l  ex- 
clusive sovereignty  (d'  the  United  States  over  the  whole  of  the  terri- 
tory beyond  the  R(»cky  Mountains,  waslied  by  the  river  Columbia,  in 
manner  and  extent  as  1  liad  stated,  subject,  of  course,  to  whatever 
existing  conventional  arrangements  they  may  have  formed  in  regard 
to  it  w  ith  other  Powers.  Their  title  to  this  whole  country  they  con- 
sidered as  not  to  be  shaken.  It  had  often  been  proclaimed  in  the  le- 
gislative discussions  of  the  nation,  and  was  otherwise  public  before 
the  world.  Its  broad  and  stable  foundations  were  laid  in  the  first  un- 
contradicted discovery  of  that  river,  both  at  its  mouth  and  at  its 
source,  fcdhiwcd  up  by  aneffeclive  settlement,  and  that  settlompiit  the 
earliest  ever  made  upon  its  banks.  If  a  title  in  tlie  United  States, 
tlius  transcendent,  nee(k'd  confirmation,  it  might  be  sought  in  their 
now  uniting  to  itthetitle  of  Spain.  It  was  not  the  intention  of  the  United 
States,  1  remarked,  to  irpose  up(m  any  of  the  extreme  pretensions  of 
that  Power  to  speculative  dcmiinion  in  those  seas,  which  grew  up  in 
less  enlightened  ages,  however  countenanced  in  those  ages:  nor  iiad 
I,  as  their  Plenipotentiary,  sought  any  ai<l  imm  such  pretensions:  but, 
to  the  extent  of  the  just  claims  of  S])ain.  grounded  upon  her  fair  en- 
terprise and  resources,  at  pcM'iods  when  her  renown  for  both. filled  all 
Europe,  the  United  States  luid  succeede*!.  and,  upon  claims  of  tliin 
cbaracter,  it  liad,  therefore,  become  as  well  their  right  as  their  duty 
to  insist.  I  asserted  again  the  incontestible  priority  of  Spanish  dis- 
coveries on  the  coast  in  question.  1  referred  to  the  voyage  of  Cortez, 
who.  in  losr,  discovered  Califiu'nia:  tothoseof  Alareon  and  Coronado, 
in  1540,;  to  tliat  of  Cabrillo.  in  1542,  all  of  whom  were  prior  to  Drake, 


I 


an 


r  i 


[Doc.  No.  65.1 


21 


and  the  last  of  \vliom  made  tlic  rnasit.  by  all  the  accounts  that  are 
given.  UH  high  up  as  latitude  44.  As  to  Drakr,  I  said,  ttuit.  although 
FhMiiieu,  in  iiis  intifxluctioii  to  Marrhaud,  did  assert  thai  he  got  a» 
far  north  as  48,  yetiiakliiyt,  who  wrote  almost  at  the  time  that  Orakc 
flourished.  iul'oi'mM  us  that  he  got  no  higher  than  4.3,  having  put  hack 
at  that  point  from  "the  exti'eme  cold."  All  the  later  anth(n's  orcom- 
pilers,  also,  who  spoke  of  his  voyage,  however  tliey  might  dilfer  as  to 
the  degree  of  latitude  to  which  he  went,  adopted  Irom  Ilakliiyt  this 
fact  id"  his  having  turned  hack  from  tlie  intensity  ol  the  weather.  The 
pre|)iinderance  of  |)rohahility,  therefore,  I  alleged,  as  well  as  of  au- 
thority, was.  that  Drake  did  not  get  beyond  43  along  that  coast.  At 
all  events,  it  was  cirtain  th.at  he  liad  nuide  made  no  settlements  there, 
and  the  stbsence  of  these  woidd,  under  the  doctrine  of  Great  Britain, 
asappli"d  by  her  to  Spain.  ])revent  any  tille  whatevei'  attaching  to  his 
supposed  discoveries.  They  were,  moreover,  put  out  of  view  by  the 
treaty  of  irtiS.  by  whicli  llritain  agreed  to  consider  the  Mississippi 
as  her  western  boundary  upon  tiuit  continent. 

Our  discussions,  which  grew  into  length,  and  only  a  ccnidensed  view 
of  which  I  have  aime«l  at  presenting  to  you.  termiruited  without  any 
change  of  opinion  on  eitlier  side.  Having  stat»^d  the  principal  points 
which  marked  them,  my  duty  seems  to  be  drawing  to  a  close,  without 
the  necessity  of  setting  belore  you  all  the  amplifications  and  details 
into  which,  on  topics  so  copious,  they  woidd  sonuMimes  run.  They 
were  ended  on  t!)e  side  of  (rreat  Britain.  I»y  her  Plenipotentiaries  re- 
peating, that  they  found  it  altogether  impossible  to  accede,  either  to 
the  proposal  id"  the  United  States,  or  to  the  reasoidng  invoked  in  its 
support.  That,  nevertheless,  they  desired  to  lay  a  foundation  of  har- 
mony between  the  two  countries  in  that  part  of  the  globe,  to  close — not 
leave  o])cn,  sources  of  future  disagreement,  which  time  might  multiply 
and  aggravate.  That,  with  this  view,  and  setting  aside  the  discord- 
ant principles  of  the  two  Governments,  in  the  hope  of  promoting  it, 
Ihey  had  to  propose,  first,  that  the  tliird  article  of  the  convention  of 
October,  1818,  should  now  be  (onsidcred  as  at  an  end.  Secondly, 
that,  instead  of  it,  the  boundary  line  between  the  territories,  respect- 
ively claimed  by  tlie  two  Powers,  westward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
should  be  drawn  due  west,  along  the  49th  parallel  of  latitude,  to  the 
point  where  it  strikes  the  northeasternmost  branch  of  the  Ccdumbia, 
and  thence,  down,  along  the*middle  of  the  Columbia,  to  the  Pacific 
ocean:  the  navigatioti  of  this  river  to  be  fiu'ever  free  to  the  subjects 
and  citizens  of  both  nations:  and  further,  tiiat  the  subjects  or  citizens 
of  either  shcmld  not.  in  future,  be  allowed  to  form  settlements  within 
the  limits  to  be  tinis  assigned  to  the  othei",  with  a  saving  in  favor  of 
settlements  already  foi-med  within  tl:e  prohibited  limits,  the  proprie- 
tors or  occupants  of  which,  on  both  sides,  should  be  allowed  to  remain 
ten  vears  loiiijrer. 

This  proj)osal  they  annexed,  in  form  f marked  P.)  to  the  protocol 
of  the  twenty -third  conference.  They  remarked,  that,  in  submitting 
it,  they  considered  Great  Britain  as  dejiarting  largely  Irom  the  full 
extent  of  her  right,  and  that,  if  accejded  by  the  United  States,  it 


22 


[Doc.  No  65.] 


would  impose  upon  her  the  necessity,  ultimately,  ol'  breaking  up  lour 
or  five  sctiiciiients,  t'ormetl  by  her  sulijects  within  the  limits  that 
wouhl  become  prolijhited;  and  that  tlit-y  had  Ibnnrd,  under  the  be- 
lief of  their  lull  right,  as  British  subjects,  to  settle  there.  But  their 
Government  was  willing,  they  said,  to  make  these  surrendei's,  for  so 
they  considered  tlieni,  in  a  spirit  of  compromise,  on  points  where  the 
tw  o  nations  stood  so  di  /ided. 

I  instantly  declared  to  the  British  Plenipotentiaries  my  utter  in- 
ability to  accept  such  a  boundary  as  they  had  proposed.  I  ad«'ed,  at 
the  same  time,  that  I  knew  how  the  spirit  of  just  accommodation  also 
animated  the  Government  of  the  United  States  upon  this  occasion. 
That,  in  compliance  w  ith  this  spirit,  and  in  order  to  meet  Great  Bri- 
tain on  ground  that  might  bo  deemed  middle,  1  would  consent  so  far 
to  vary  the  tovn\H  of  my  own  proposal,  annexed  to  the  twelfth  proto- 
col, as  to  shift  its  southern  line  as  low  as  49,  in  place  of  51.  I  de- 
sired it  to  be  understood,  that  this  was  the  extreme  limit  to  which  I 
was  authorized  to  go:  and  that,  in  being  willing  to  make  this  change, 
I  too  considered  the  United  States  as  abating  their  rights,  in  the  hope 
of  being  able  to  put  an  end  to  all  conflict  of  claims,  between  the  two 
imticms,  to  tiie  coast  and  country  in  dispute. 

The  British  IMenlpotentiarics,  after  having  this  modification  of  my 
first  pi-ojwsal  a  fortnight  under  consideration,  rejected  it,  and  they 
made  me  no  new  pro))osal  in  return. 

They  did  not,  in  terms,  enter  their  rejection  of  this,  my  second 
proposal,  on  the  pmtocol,  and  I  did  not  urge  it,  thinking  that  their 
abstinence,  as  far  as  it  could  have  any  efl'ect,  might  tend  to  leave  the 
door  somewhat  less  permanently  closed  against  re-consideration, 
should  the  proposal,  as  so  modified  by  me,  ever  be  again  made.  But 
it  is  right  for  me  to  state,  that  they  more  than  once  declared,  at  the 
closing  hours  of  the  negotiation,  that  the  boundary  marked  out  in  their 
own  written  proposal,  was  one  from  which  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  must  not  ex]iect  Great  Britain  to  depart. 

I  haAc  to  a<l<!,  that  their  pi-oposal  was  fii'st  made  to  me  verbally, 
at  the  twentieth  conference,  and  that  it  then  embraced  an  alteruative 
of  leaving  the  third  article  of  the  Convention  of  1818,  to  its  natural 
couj'se  and  limit.  But  this  they  afterwards  controlled,  by  their  more 
formal  and  final  proposition,  in  writing,  annexed,  as  betbrc  described, 
to  the  protocol  of  the  twenty-third  conference. 

PROTOCOL  OF  THE  ELEVENTH  CONFERENCE 

Of  the  Jmcrican  and  lirithk  Vlempoteniiarics,  held  at  the  Board  of 
Trade,  on  the  \st  of  Jipril,  1824. 

Present, — Mr.  Riisli,  Mr.  Huskisson,  Mr.  Stratford  Canning. 

The  protocol  of  the  proreding  conferejice  was  read  over,  and  signed. 

The  x\merican  Plenipotentiary  opened  the  sul)jert  of  teiritorinl 
claims  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  westward  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  having  been  understood  that  the  pretension  which 
had  been  put  forward  by  the  Cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg,  respecting 


Jour 
that 

e  bo. 

their 
Uiv  so 

e  tlie 


[  Doc.  No.  65.  ] 


28 


its  J(iris(li(-tion  in  that  qimi'ter,  was  to  be  a  inattoi  '*  Hoparatu  (li.s« 
cusHJon  betwcTii  the  respective  parties,  lie  ubservc;.  Uiat,  notwith- 
standing this  circumstance,  and  ulllciigli  the  ('wiv.":  '.m  of  October, 
18 IB,  one  article  of  which  contained  a  temporary  in>gulation  with 
respect  to  the  above  mentioned  «  '  timH,  had  Ntill  four  years  to  con- 
tinue, his  Government  was  of  opinion,  that  the  present  was  not  an 
uiisiiitabie  moment  for  attempting  a  settlement  of  the  boundary  outhe 
Northwest  Coast  of  America,  westward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains;  and 
lie  therefore  proceeded  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  claims  which  his 
Government  thought  itself  entitled  to  advance. 

This  statement  not  being  completed  in  the  present  conference,  Mr. 
llush  undertook  to  resume  it  on  tho  following  day. 

UICIIAKD  RUSH, 
W.  HUSKISSON, 
STRAxl^ORD  CANNING. 


'■  < 


PROTOCOL  OF  THE  TWELFTH  CONFERENCE 

Of  the  American  and  British  PlenipotentiarieSf  held  at  the  Hoard  of 
Trade,  on  the  2d  of  Jipril,  1324. 

Present,  Mr.  Rush, 

Mr.  Huskisson, 

Mr.  Stratford  Canning. 

The  protocol  of  the  preceding  conference  was  i-ead  over  and  signed* 
The  American  Plenipotentiary  resumed  the  commu')ication  which 
he  had  commenced  in  that  conference,  on  the  subject  oi  the  territorial 
claims  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  westward  of  the  Rocky 
Moiintainn,  and  concluded  by  giving  in  tiic  paper  marked  B\  annexed 
hei-eto,  as  containing  the  proposal  of  his  Government  on  that  head. 
Adjourned  to  Monday,  the  5th  of  April. 

RICHARD  RUSH, 
W.  HUSKISSON, 
STRATFORD  CANNING. 


'  ';v 


PROTOCOL  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CONFERENCE 

(Jf  the  American  and  British  Plenipotentiaries,  held  at  the  Board  of 
Trade,  on  the  Q9th  of  June,  1824. 

Present,  Mr.  Rush, 

Mr.  Huskisson, 

Mr.  Stratlord  Canning. 

Tlie  protor»)l  of  the  preceding  conference  was  road  over  and  signed. 

The  Rritish  Plenipotentiaries  stated  and  explained,  at  length,  the 
sentiments  of  their  Government  with  respect  to  the  conflicting  claims 
Mf  Great  Britain  and  the  U.  States  to  the  tcn-itories  in  North  America. 


21 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


lying  bolwccii  the  Rocky  MoiintHins  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They 
declined  the  proposal  made  oi!  tliis  subject  by  the  American  Plenipo- 
tentiary, and  annexed  to  the  12th  piotocol,  because  it  would  sul)stan- 
tially  have  the  effect  of  limitini;  tlic  clainjs  of  their  (lovernment  to  a 
degree  inccntsistent,  as  they  thought,  uith  the  credit  and  jnst  inter- 
ests of  tlie  nation.  Alter  much  discussion  and  mutual  explanation 
of  the  claims  on  eacli  side,  wheji  taken  in  their  lull  extent,  it  was 
agreed  that,  following  the  exam[»le  given  by  the  American  Plenipo- 
tentiary ill  his  proposal,  it  would  be  advisable  to  attempt  a  settlement 
on  terms  of  mutual  convenienre,  setting  aside,  for  that  purpose,  the 
discordant  principles  on  which  the  lespective  claims  were  founded. 

Whereuj>on,  the  British  IMenii)otent4iiries  stated,  in  general  terms, 
that  they  were  ready  eitlier  to  agree  on  a  boundary  line,  to  be  drawji 
due  west  from  the  Uocky  Mountains,  ah^ng  the  49tli  parallel  of  lati- 
tude, to  the  northeastej'nmost  branch  of  the  Columbia  or  Oregon  Iti- 
ver,  and  thence,  down  the  middle  of  that  river,  to  the  ocean,  or  to 
leave  the  third  article  of  the  convoition  of  1818  to  its  natural  course. 

The  American  Plenipotentiary,  in  remarking  upon  the  boundai-y, 
declared  his  utter  inability  to  accede  to  it;  but  finding  tliat  tfie  line 
olfered  in  his  formei*  j)roposal,  was  considered  wholly  inadmissable 
by  the  IJrilish  Plenipotentiaries,  said  that,  in  the  hope  of  adjusting 
Mie  question,  he  would  so  far  vary  his  former  line  to  the  south,  as  to 
<;onsent  that  it  should  be  the  49th,  instead  of  the  51st  degree  of  north 
latitude. 

In  the  course  of  the  conference,  the  American  Plenipotentiary 
stated,  ihat  he  was  instructed  to  insist  on  the  principle,  that  no  part 
of  the  American  continent  was  henceforward  to  be  open  to  colonization 
from  £uro|)e.  To  explain  this  principle,  he  stated  that  the  indepen- 
dence! of  the  late  Sjianish  provinces  precluded  any  new  settlement 
within  the  limits  of  their  respective  jurisdictions  :  that  the  United 
States  claimed  tiie  exclusive  sovereignty  of  all  the  territory  within 
the  parallels  of  latitude  which  include  as  well  the  nn)uth  of  the  Co- 
lumbia as  the  heads  of  that  i-ivcr,  and  of  all  its  tributary  streams:  and 
that,  with  resjiect  to  the  whole  of  tlie  reujaimier  of  tnat  coiitinent  not 
actually  o(  cupied,  the  I'owers  of  Eui-ope  weiv  deliarred  from  making 
new  settlements,  by  the  claim  of  tlio  United  States,  as  derived  under 
tlieir  title  fi'om  Spain. 

The  British  I'hMupotentiarlcs  asserted,  in  utter  denial  of  the  above 
jirinciple,  that  tliej  considered  the  unoccupied  parts  of  America  j.ist 
as  much  open  as  heretofore,  to  colonization  by  (.ri-eat  lii-itain.  as  we'll 
as  by  other  Europeiin  Powers,  agreeably  to  the  conventi(m  of  IT'JO, 
between  tlie  Briti.sh  and  Spanish  Governments,  and  tliat  the  United 
Slates  would  have  no  right  whatever  to  take  umbrage  at  the  c'-lab- 
lishment  of  new  colonies  iVom  Europe  in  any  sudi  parts  of  the  Ame- 
I'ican  contitient. 

The  Hi'itish  Plenipotentiaries  added,  that  they  felt  themselves  more 
particularlv  called  upon  to  express  their  distinct  denial  of  the  ]|)rin(iple 
and  claims Vhus  stt  forth  by  the  American  Plenipotrntiaey,  as  his  claim 
L'tiim;  tlie  terrltyrv  watered  bv  tlie  i-lver  Columbia  a!ul  itstribu- 


T'es 


Pi' 


[Doc.  No.  65.] 


2S 


taiy  .streams,  bcsirlcs  being  essentially  objectionable  in  its  general 
bcai-ing.  Ir.ul  the  eifoct  of  intcrfei-ing  directly  with  the  actual  righto 
ol*(«reut  Britain,  ilciivcd  ironi  use,  occupancy,  and  settlement. 

RICHARD  RUSH, 
W.  UUSKISSON, 
STRATFORD  CANNING. 


EXTRACT  FROM  PRCrrOCOL  OF  THE  TW  ENTY-THIRD 

CONFERENCE, 

Of  the  Amcrkau  ami  Britiali  Plenipotentiaries,  held  at  the  Board  nj 
Trade,  on  the  13//t  July,   1824. 

Present, — Mr.  Rush, 

Mr.  Huskissdti, 

Mr.  StiatCord  Canning. 

The  protocol  olthe  preroding  conference  was  read  over  and  signed. 

Tlic  Bt*itish  Plenipotentiaries,  in  more  complete  explanation  of  the 
statement  made  by  them,  in  the  twentieth  confejence,  gave  in  an  article 
comprising  the  counter  proposals  of  their  Govermncnt,  as  to  the  North- 
west boundary  in  America,  I'rom  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  They  observed,  at  the  same  time,  that,  if  their  article  were  ac- 
cepted, in  substance,  by  tlie  American  Government,  it  would  be  ne- 
ressary,  on  framing  it  into  a  convention,  to  give  its  details  and  accompa- 
nying arrangements  a  more  distinct  and  expanded  shape.  They  added^ 
that,  in  making  the  annexed  proposal,  they  had  departed  jonsiderably 
from  the  full  extent  of  the  British  right,  agreeably  to  the  readiness 
which  they  had  before  expressed  to  settle  the  Northwest  boundary, 
on  grounds  of  fair  compromise  and  mutual  accommodation. 

The  American  Plenipotentiary,  in  receiving  the  above  article  from 
the  Britisli  Plenipotentiaries,  remarked,  that  he  wished  it  also  to  bo 
nude  vitood.  that,  in  proj)osi!ig  a  njodification  of  the  article  originally 
subm.tted  by  him,  on  this  subject,  he  had  been  governed  by  the  same 
view.*' 


F. 
AMERICAN  PAPERS, 

On  the  J^'hrthtcest  coast  of  America  Ctwdfth  'protocol,) 

Whereas,  by  the  third  article  of  tlie  Convention  between  the  United 
States  jind  his  Britannic  Majesty,  signed  at  Lond(m,  on  the  twentieth 
of  October,  1818,  it  was  agreed,  th.it  any  country  that  might  be 
claimed  by  either  pai'ty  cm  the  Northwest  Coast  of  America,  west- 
ward oftlie  Stoney  Mountains,  should,  together  with  its  harboi^,  bays, 
and  creeks,  and  the  navigation  of  all  rivers  within  the  same,  be  free 
and  ojicn  for  the  term  of  ten  years  from  the  date  of  the  said  Conven- 
tion, to  the  vessels,  citizens,  and  subjects  of  the  two  Powers,  it  having 
been  understood,  that  such  agreement  was  not  to  be  construed  to  the 
piH'judice  of  any  claim  which  either  of  the  parties  might  have  to  any 
t 


36 


[Doc.  No.  65.  J 


pa "t  of  the  said  country,  or  taken  to  affect  tl»e  claims  of  any  otiicv 
Power,  but  only  to  prevent  disputes  and  differences  between  the  parties 
themselves;  and  whercjis  it  is  desirable  that  the  provisions  of  the 
said  article  should  be  continued  for  a  longer  term  tlian  as  therein  spe- 
cified, it  is,  therefore,  agreed,  by  the  high  contracting  parties,  that 
the  same  shall  continue  in  force  for  the  full  term  often  years  from  the 
signature  of  the  present  Convention.  The  high  contracting  parties 
further  agree,  that,  during  the  like  term,  no  settlement  shall  be  made 
on  the  Northwest  Coast  of  Ameiica.  or  on  any  of  the  islands  there- 
unto adjoining,  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  north  of  the  fifty-first 
degree  of  north  latitude,  or  by  British  subjects  either  south  of  the  said 
fifty-first  degree,  or  north  of  the  fifty -fifth  degree  of  north  latitude. 


r. 

BRITISH  PAPER, 

On  the  JS''orthwest  Coast  of  America,    (twenty-third  Protocol.} 

It  is  agreed  that  the  third  article  of  the  Convention  concluded  at 
London,  on  the  20th  of  October,  1818,  between  His  Britannic  Majesty, 
and  the  United  States  of  America,  sliall  cease  and  determine  from  tho 
date  hereof;  and  instead  of  tiie  stipulations  contained  in  that  article, 
it  is  further  agi'eed,  that  the  boundary  line  between  the  territories 
claimed  by  His  Britannic  Majesty,  and  those  claimed  by  the  United 
States,  to  the  West  in  both  cases  of  tlic  Rock  Mountains,  shall  be 
drawn  due  west,  along  the  49Ui  parallel  of  north  latitude,  to  t!ie])oint 
where  that  parallel  strikes  the  great  Northeasternmost  branch  of  the 
Oregon,  or  Columbia  River;  marked  in  tiic  maps  as  M-Gillivray's 
River;  thence,  down,  along  the  middle  of  the  Oregon  or  Columbia, 
to  its  junction  with  the  Pacific  Ocean :  the  navigation  of  the 
whole  channel  being  perpetually  free  to  the  subjects  and  citizens  of 
both  parties;  the  said  subjects  and  citizens  being  also  reciprocally  at 
liberty,  during  the  term  of  ten  years  from  the  date  hereof,  to  pass 
and  repass  by  land  and  by  water;  and  to  navigate,  with  their  vessels 
and  merchandise,  all  the  rivei-s,  bays,  harbors,  and  creeks,  as  hereto- 
fore, on  either  side  of  the  abovementioned  line,  and  to  trade  with  all 
and  any  of  the  nations  free  of  duty  or  impost  ofany  kind,  subject  ojily  to 
such  local  regulations,  as,  in  other  respects,  either  oftiietwo  contract- 
ing parties  may  find  it  necessary  to  enfoice  within  its  own  limits,  and 
prohibited  from  furnishing  the  natives  witli  fire  arms  and  other  ex- 
cepti(mable  articles  to  he  hereafter  enumerated;  and,  it  is  fui'ther  es- 
pecially agreed,  tliat  neither  of  the  high  contracting  parties,  their  re- 
spective subjects  or  citizens  shall  henceforward  form  any  settlements 
within  the  limits  assigned  hereby  to  the  other,  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains;  itbeijig  ai  the  same  time  understood,  that  any  settlen»ent3 
already  formed  by  the  British  to  the  South  and  East  of  the  boundary 
line  above  described,  or  by  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  the  North 
and  West  of  the  same  line,  shall  contiujseto  he  occupied  and  enjoyed  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  present  pi-opiietors  or  occu])ants,  without  let  or 
hindrance  of  any  kind  until  the  exj>iration  of  the  above  mentioned 
term  of  ten  years  fi-om  the  date  hereof. 


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